INTRODUCTION
I know some of you are getting excited and a little anxious for the upcoming Madden 24 cycle. As we get ready to venture into the cycle ahead, I wanted to take the time to once again thank you all for commitment to this league and helping to build such a fun and engaging community despite last year’s bugfest of a game that ended early for Madden 23. With cautious optimism I am looking forward to bigger and better things for Madden 24. With that said here are the updated rules of how things will shake out for the upcoming Madden 24 cycle.
TEAM SELECTION
Our "Team Selection Draft" order for team selection will be based off of overall commitment to the league through player participation and community engagement as well as skill level. For those who played all their games and complied with the streaming component, you will be rewarded for your efforts with a bump up the list of team selection. Any tiebreakers will be decided based off of parity, meaning the weaker player based off of play during the cycle will get the nudge ahead of the other party. As always, we allow people to trade up 5 spots with somebody but they'll be forced to give the user they are trading with their 1st round pick for that upcoming draft. Should you trade up and select a team that doesn't have a 1st round pick for that draft. You'll be forced to give that user a "Superstar" dev player of your choosing on the roster you select. From there we will proceed into our preseason.
CORNERSTONE PLAYERS
How Cornerstone Players work - Each owner will have to select 1 player on offense and 1 player on defense to be deemed as a cornerstone player for your team. This can only be done in the offseason/preseason period. Once a cornerstone player is selected:
We will bump them up by 1 dev trait (e.g. Star to Superstar development trait)
They cannot be changed for the entirety of the cycle.
You cannot trade that player and must make sure they stay on your roster.
They are not allowed to hit free agency for the entirety of the cycle regardless of your roster/cap situation. So please select wisely and manage your rosters appropriately.
We will only update Cornerstone players during the preseason.
They don't have to be named in the first offseason and often some owners hold out until after the draft in the following offseason before locking cornerstone players in for their rosters. Once the regular season starts, you'll have to wait until the following offseason in order to select a "Cornerstone player" If a new owner comes and takes over an open team. They are required to keep these players for 1 season before they can update their cornerstone players to their liking. (we will revert the old cornerstone players to their original dev trait during this process)
MADDEN 24 SEASON 1 FREE AGENCY DRAFT
This year once again we will proceed with the Free Agency Draft to start the cycle. Nobody will be allowed to sign any free agents to start the cycle and we will jump right into the free agent draft once every owner has joined the league. With the new restructuring of contracts option in this version of the game, I will no longer be clearing cap penalties for any owners leading up to the Free Agency Draft nor at any other point of the cycle. Once the Free Agency Draft is officially complete, everyone can sign whomever they want to fill out the rest of their roster needs
GAMEPLAY Settings
All Madden difficulty
Simulation mode
8-minute quarters
Accelerated play clock (Forcing people to not spend the entirety of the play clock searching for plays and milking the clock)
We advance every Wednesdays and Saturdays at 10 pm eastern unless all games finish earlier
Playoff advance schedule is every 48 hours
Plays limited to 3 times per game. No cooldown period
LEAGUE RULES
All members must create a coach when joining the league so that they do not have an advantage with the coaching points required for this cycle. We do understand that there are assistant coaches for their respective teams with coaching points already associated with them but we will leave those as they are in its current state. Should you want to relocate a team, I am only allowing long time members that opportunity and they will have to convert to an owner in order for that to take place. Once the steps for relocation have been put in place you must change back to a created coach.
PRE-SEASON
Pre-Season games will be advanced daily. Injuries will be turned off during the Pre-Season so you can milk your rookies for the XP gains you want to achieve for the regular season. If you do not want to play your preseason games. Cut your roster down to 53 players and please put yourself on "auto" so that your opponents can play their games.
All PLAYER VS PLAYER games MUST to be streamed by BOTH players
This is done for two reasons
It ensures that we all follow the league rules and adhere to the guidelines set in place. It is one of the tools that we use to settle any disputes among league members, keeping the drama outside of chat and ensuring a fun experience for our users
It is a way for others in the league to scout each other as if we were in a real football environment. It also serves as a teaching tool for the weaker players in our league to help them learn and catchup to the rest of the league in regards to skill level adding more parity to the league.
** I will be enforcing this more strictly this cycle with suspensions. I don’t care if you’re in another league and you don’t want others from there to study you. **
I also personally take the footage and upload it to the league YouTube channel (unedited to have a log of games for league members) so that it is visible for everyone.
SCHEDULING
Please contact your opponents as soon as possible when scheduling games. This makes it easier to get times in and handle any scheduling conflicts right from the onset. If you have issues with your opponent not communicating, inform us 24 hours before advance and we'll give you the option of a sim win or the chance to play the cpu. Please note that injuries will not be turned off for simmed games. This is to encourage both parties to make a legitimate attempt to get your games in. If injuries happen because of the simmed game. That is the price you pay, you can always play the cpu instead. Remember we advance every Wednesdays and Saturdays at 10pm eastern unless all games are completed before hand. The playoff advance schedule is every 48 hours
CPU Games
If you are in a situation where you have the option to play the cpu. Don't run up the score or stat pad. We have added a maximum threshold of stats players can have against the cpu that go as follows.
QBs cannot pass for more than 480 yds
HBs cannot have more than 220 rushing yds
WRs/TEs cannot have more than 220 receiving yds
Defensive players cannot have more than 5 sacks
Players can have no more than 5 TDs
Any user that abuses this will be punished and face a possible ban from the league
DISCONNECTED GAMES
If both parties disconnect within the 1st half you will have to recreate the point differential the winning party had at the time of the disconnect and continue to play from there.
If both parties disconnect in the 2nd half you will have to recreate the point differential the winning party had at the time of the disconnect and continue to play from the start of the 2nd half
If both parties disconnect in the 4th quarter and the winning party is up by 21 pts or more. They will be awarded the sim win or allowed to play the cpu
If both parties disconnect for a third time the person winning the majority of those games at the time of the disconnect will be awarded the sim win and the game will be simmed
SPORTSMANSHIP
This league is meant to be a challenging but FUN experience. Trash talk is always welcomed and encouraged but PLEASE shy away from personal attacks and make it a point to be courteous to one another.
DO NOT RUN UP THE SCORE ON YOUR OPPONENTS.
If you are up by 21 points or more in the 4th quarter, PLEASE shy away from slinging it up and down the field and play ball control football. Milk the clock rules apply if up by 28 points. If you are within FG range kick the FG. If you score an offensive TD, you will be punished. Defensive TDs however are allowed so if they throw an interception or fumble you are allowed to return it for a TD. This rule is the one that consistently gets broken and we will punish you if you do break it. We don't care if it's a "dev scenario" and that back breaking TD will earn you a dev upgrade. Follow the rules and be considerate of whom you are playing.
Once in the 4th Quarter if you are up by 21 points or more you MUST NOT continue to bomb it down field. Don't be a dick and Please play clock management football. This means running the football more and simply run short to medium pass plays to milk the clock more. We don't want people bombing it to the goal line just to run it out and kick the FG for stat pad reasons. Be respectful of your opponents.
4th DOWN RULE
You can for it on any 4th and 10 attempt or less if the ball is past midfield. (This is just to prevent people from going insane and doing a 4th and 26 from the 48-yard line)
You can go for any 4th down if you're down 17 or more at any time.
You can go for any 4th down if you are tied or losing in the 4th quarter.
**NEWLY ADDED** You CANNOT go for it if you are up by a touchdown (7 points) or more at any point in the game.
CHEW CLOCK FEATURE
You are not allowed to chew clock at any point in the game unless you meet the criteria below
You are up by 28 pts or more in the 4th quarter
You are up with under 2 minutes remaining in the game
In a blowout situation both owners agree to it. (Communications on this must be submitted to the commissioner so there aren't any issues afterwards)
This rule will be strictly enforced
PLAYCALLING
Custom playbooks are allowed on both offense and defense. We have added a limit of 3 times a play can be called during a game. We encourage you all to mix up your playcalling on both offense and defense. If on defense you are caught running the same concept all game long (example. Cover 3 out of every formation you can get a hold of) You will be banned from the league. Mix up your playcalling this isn't Weekend league or Ranked.
Please note:
EDITING PLAYER NAMES IS NOT ALLOWED!!!
Owners are not allowed to put WR's at the TE position. The only exception is in the formation packages preset by EA. Anyone caught gaming the system to exploit this will be removed from the league. Safeties can only play the LB slot if they are in the SUB LB slot on your depth chart. You can only have 1 safety subbed into the SUB LB spot on your depth chart. They ARE NOT ALLOWED TO BE SUBBED INTO ANY OTHER LB SPOT PERIOD. Rule breakers will be put on AUTO FOR 3 WEEKS. Safeties and CBs can be alternated to any of the secondary positions as you see fit.
HB's can only play the FB position if they have a speed rating of 86 or lower and weight 240 lbs and up. The only exception to this rule is in the subpackages already provided by those formations. Remember everyone, we have a 53-man roster for a reason. Please use the roster depth appropriately.
Linebackers can be swapped to any LB spot and even the DE spot. They cannot play DT under any circumstances. DE's and DT's can be swapped back and forth as needed BUT if you converted an LB to a DE, he cannot play the DT spot.
OLinemen can be swapped back and forth as you see fit. WRs can be swapped to HB and vice versa. ALL OTHER ROSTER CHANGES MUST BE SUBMITTED TO ME FOR APPROVAL
TRADES / FREE AGENCY
If you sign a free agent you are required to keep that person on your roster until the next advance. Anyone that releases a player on their roster with the intension of resigning them to a cheaper 1-year deal will be BOOTED from the league. However, in the Offseason window you can release them and bid on them with everyone else.
Trades will no longer be voted on by the trade committee as in years past. Gone are the days of the trade committee reviewing trades for approval and dealing with the backlash of trade rejections or league members being pissed off on how trades got approved in the first place**.**
Instead trades will be submitted through the NeonSportz app so the league can vote on it **NEW THIS CYCLE**
Once submitted all league members can vote for or against the trade in that channel or through the app. The first to 10 votes 'for' or 'against' the trade determines the outcome of the trade. If by 24 hours the trade is not resolved. The higher number of votes decides the outcome of the trade.
Once a trade has been approved both owners must complete the transaction in game. We do not care if you do not have the cap room to complete the trade. If that is the case you will need to release the appropriate player/players to free up the necessary cap room in order for this transaction to be completed. The onus is on you the owners to pay attention to the cap situation your teams are in and to be sure you can make the necessary roster moves to make things work. Once you acquire your newest addition from a trade. They must remain on your roster for the season before they can be involved in any trade negotiations.
** Owners whom decide to take it upon themselves to push trades through without approval, and/or setup with another owner a time to release/exchange players behind the scenes will be BOOTED from the league. NO EXCEPTIONS **
DRAFT PICK LIMITATIONS
Due to gross abuse of a few owners stocking up on draft collateral over the years we have added a limitation on the number of draft picks each owner can have per round. Below are the parameters in which we will follow.
1st round pick: No more than three per round
2nd round pick: No more than three per round
3rd round pick: No more than four per round
4th round pick: No more than five per round
5th to 7th round picks: UNLIMITED
END OF SEASON AWARDS **NEW THIS CYCLE**
This cycle we will be adding bonuses to all the award winners at the end of each season. If you are out of a playoff spot and feel there isn't much to play for, you can take this as an opportunity to work on that rookie (or any other player) you've been coveting and boosting their stats in hopes of earning one of the end of season awards. Award winners will receive your choice of one of the following upgrades:
A 2 point non-physical attribute boost of your choice (These cannot be split up)
A character trait upgrade (note this is not a dev trait bump)
Please note: if at any point afterwards they regress in attributes, they will not be adjusted back up. You have to keep performing with them to ensure their development and growth.